Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit to occupied Lebanese territory on Tuesday, stated that Israeli forces would not withdraw from southern Lebanon until the threat posed by Hezbollah is removed. According to a statement from his office, Netanyahu told troops that the creation of a security zone inside Lebanon represents a strategic shift and that the military has killed 9,000 Hezbollah fighters while reducing the group’s rocket arsenal to roughly eight per cent of its pre-war stockpile. The visit came four days after Israel and Lebanon signed a US-brokered framework agreement that makes any Israeli pullout conditional on the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups, a direct reference to Hezbollah.

The agreement, described by US officials as a step toward a durable peace, provides for an initial handover of two “pilot zones” to the Lebanese army but contains no timetable for a full withdrawal. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the accord as a means to restore sovereignty, yet Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, said it would not be implemented and amounted to an imposed settlement. Hezbollah’s leadership denounced the deal as a humiliation that legitimises an open-ended Israeli presence, vowing to continue fighting. In parallel, the United States and its partners announced fresh sanctions targeting five financial institutions and sixteen individuals linked to Hezbollah’s funding networks, a move the US Treasury said aimed to disrupt the group’s access to the international financial system.

Analysts in Beirut and London assess the framework as structurally flawed because it hinges on a condition that the Lebanese state cannot enforce. The Lebanese army, they note, is neither equipped nor politically positioned to disarm a heavily armed non-state actor that operates within a sectarian power-sharing system. Michael Young, a Beirut-based analyst, said the deal places all the burden on Lebanon and creates a structure that allows Israel to remain in the south indefinitely. Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics described the agreement as “born dead,” arguing that Israel has already consolidated a buffer zone roughly ten kilometres deep while gaining diplomatic cover for a long-term military presence.

The current conflict began on 2 March when Hezbollah fired on northern Israel in what it called solidarity with Iran, days after US and Israeli forces struck Iran. Israel’s subsequent ground invasion and air campaign have killed more than 4,200 people in Lebanon and displaced over a million, according to Lebanese authorities. Israeli officials say the security zone is necessary to protect northern communities and that the military is destroying tunnels and other infrastructure. The framework agreement is now being discussed in parallel with US-Iran negotiations to end the wider regional war; Iran has demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of any deal, while Israel insists on delinking the two fronts. A US Central Command delegation is in Beirut to discuss implementation with Lebanese officials, but with Hezbollah excluded from the talks and no enforcement mechanism in place, the dossier remains deadlocked.